in 2011, we received 318 requests for u visas. this year we expect to review 994 cases. the special victims unit leads the way setting the standard for best practices in law enforcement. tvu has several members that our instructors who travel to california to train other law enforcement agencies. as the commanding officer of svu i stand before you tonight very proud of the caliber of members of the officers assigned to svu. at the same time recognize we are only one piece of the puzzle.under financial

crimes . the 20 are crosstrained in domestic violence, sexual assault, elderly abuse. it takes commitment and dedication.3 it is not always easy. we have to ourselves forward. sometimes the hardest work has the best reward. >> i know inspector robert -- an inspector who does financial crimes actually taught me -- i don't know how the

investigator -- he is an accountant, you have a number of cherished inspectors, everyone in the community would be sad to lose. and we look forward to continuing to work with you guys on that. (off mic) >> let's not pick sides. >> captain, thank you so much for this report. it is encouraging on so many levels. two things: one, to be clear for folks watching, the u visa, is an acronym for what again?

>> i believe it refers to a section in the code. it describes the opportunity for an individual to apply for legal status to say in the u.s., if you're the victim of a crime under certain circumstances. >> to be clear about that. so that everyone watching can be fully informed. while certainly, and again, thanks to the leadership of chief suhr, yourself, the lieutenant and others, the integration of these areas units seems to make so much sense. it seems there practical on a number of levels and certainly there are similarities and

various types of

>> what you to do atribute the tripling of the u visa application? >> maybe the trust was not there. sensitive the word spread that

this process could be trusted. the advocacy groups helped. the district attorney. many people that considered to this, it was just a matter of time for people to trust the process and you will see the numbers grow if we are doing it right. it should continue to grow. >> of those applications, how long does it take for a decision to be made by the custom and immigration service and the percentages of approval . >> takes about six months; i cannot speak about percentages and of the 994 we have denied 20 of them based on background.

please understand that the san francisco police department is not the only entity approving u visas. there are law-enforcement across the region, the state is doing it, we are just want law-enforcement agency doing it. >> even the demand for u visas, there are certain caps. 3 also -- >> i feel like seeing this unit exist, if i would use the word "leveraging" people's expertise, it seems appropriate

place for these presentations. it reflects what we are most successful at and when we are seeing the greatest success is when we're not in silos, and partnering with nonprofits, and in some cases for profit community. i know that personnel he i have had the opportunity to participate in many of the massage parlor inspections. that to me was another example of our city being incredibly innovative in figuring out a way to confront the challenges that we do face particularly in the area of human trafficking on one side. i think it all fits to having this hearing tonight, the work

of the family violence council for me - i feel like a broken record, i feel it is a model, the benefit of being both a city and county, in some respects it is easier to bring all partner agencies together by choice or by hook. but i would urge us to continue to look at regional partnerships and for ways to support this beyond our boundaries. the crimes are not just within our boundaries. >> a want to make this comment before we go into public

comment, more question than anything else. in the spirit of how i do business. this is the part of tonight's agenda. i'm not saying it should have been. but tonight looking at the response of domestic violence, the prosecution rates, the query reporting module, and the other things i'm curious about the status of women. at some point i would like to hear about any progress in prevention of any of these crimes. what we really want to do is go out of business. i never looked at the department as a prevention agency; some people do. they do the practice of police officers.

i don't want to leave people feeling that this is inevitable. i am curious. they have conversations with folks about best practices or inroads? i am in the business of stopping young people from doing what adults do. they have meetings on, because obviously we don't want these things happening the first place. >> we do talk about this doctor marshall. integrating this into the public school curriculum, prevention, what is appropriate behavior, junior high dating, what are the boundaries for young women to set. behavioral models for young men. one thing i wanted to do more about is economic empowerment for women. as you can realize, the

department has a small staff. at one time there were as many as 8-10 staff members. now we have 4.5 we sort of move our agenda as is necessary. the prevention -- intervention particularly -- is important to us particularly empowering women. it is even more difficult when there are financial issues and be able to be gainfully employed. >> this is not a criticism. i don't think - ideal of the same thing with the kids - i am saying, any opportunity that you hear about things

progressing? when i talk to kids in school, is it really working? i want to leave it for me since i've had some success with young people i would be willing to offer to help in that area because like i said i don't like the in result. that so they want to stop. >> >> if anybody has a right to ask a question, that's dr. joe marshall.

i am very dedicated and certainly this commission is very dedicated to doing the prevention work and we do need to have a broader conversation about that. i think that as we started out with the discussion, executive director dr. -- indicated that this year so far we have had 0, we have so many days left in this calendar year, talking calendar year not fiscal year. we have had zero homicides as a result of domestic violence. that is really something to take note of. i don't think that that has occurred by happenstance; it is not a statistical anomaly. i think it is because we are gearing our work more as preventative. preventative - the collaborative effort that we

are working with, the various departments, the police department, the various partner agencies is in and of itself becoming more defined preventative. a lot we heard this evening is interventive; as we go forward the fruits of that labor become more definitively preventative. nonehelesi think that you are absolutely correct and that is correct question that we have to keep asking ourselves day-to-day. how do we behave? how do we make sure that we are moving our resources and directing our resources towards

more preventative measures? if anything at all, i think in this particular year and i'll be the one to say it, is this: we have moved the conversation in the city from the idea that one, domestic violence is specifically a woman's issue. is not. that's why i asked the captain in terms of this issue of integration. it is not a women's issue solely, wholly, or inevitably. it is a community issue. is a social issue. it is a health issue. it is a multidimensional issue. it is not as we know, a private issue. is a community issue and so as we are thinking along that continuum from preventative to

intervention to actually ending hopefully our domestic violence, we have to certainly acknowledge the fact that the needle is moving. and that the conversation is broadening and i think we are getting more specific and more expert amongst all the various departments. around the issue of domestic valiance. i'm very glad that we are having this meeting this evening. that is another milestone in terms of the conversation around how do we view and what are our values not only about intervening but presenting domestic violence in our community and understanding that he cannot, will not, i should not exist in any particular silo.

it is not just an ideological issue. it does not belong to a particular class of women or minority; it is everyone's issue and everyone has a role to play. we need to make sure we presented and hopefully and it. prevention is very key. and a driving force in the work that we're doing through -- the department, and the work that we continue to do in this collaborative and comprehensive partnership. so every department, the police department, the public defenders office, the district attorney, department of public health -- other departments involved, the sheriffs department, all must be involved so we can become more preventative. >> thank you. any further questions for

captain flaherty or lieutenant --? we will now move into the public comments section. it says five minutes total. the city attorney suggests that we give 2 minutes per person without a five-minute limit. >> speaker shall address remarks to the commission as a whole and not to individual commissioners, or department or occ personnel. neither police or occ personnel or commissioners are required to respond to questions, but may provide a brief response. occ personnel and police shall refrain from entering into a debate with speakers.

limit your comments to two minutes. >> as any public comment regarding tonight presentations? there is no comment. before we move to the last item, we will like to adjourn in memory of some folks. i want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for tonight's presentation. a lot of work went into this from the commission staff, members of the commission and this was very important in light of recent events. our goal tonight was to let the public know that the san francisco police department, attorney's office, occ, the commission, we want to assure women and men dickens of domestic violence that we are here to help you.

this is the community matter. we want to help break the cycle of violence. the presentations tonight were excellent. the message is very clear. the city and discounting takes domestic violence extreme we seriously. we have a police chief to support it and everyone in the room to support it. i cannot thank you enough. it was a great presentation. >> it was an honor to have this joint meeting. i hope it away 10 years to do it, particularly surrounded by the men and women in blue. i feel safer everyday. it is great to see you on the street but more importantly to have interaction with you and know that we have common goals. also to our immigrant communities, we are here to serve you and language barrier should not be an obstacle to seeking help nor your

immigration status. we work hard. i am a fourth-generation san francisco. i'm taking cantonese and mandarin classes to reach out. i hope that for members of the community this was an enlightening experience to learn more. i thank everyone for participating, and the organizational aspects by the respective staff. >> vice president marshall: i like when the commission joins meetings, some more than others. there is more of a nexus. we should do it again. much sooner than never.

and that we stay on top of this. there are times when just because things happen, there is a focus on it. partly what is happening the city and elsewhere, it will stay on this, reconvene, we can really do something about not only domestic violence but the triage that we have been talking about. a bit strong support that and i know my fellow commissioners would also. >> is there anything further? we would like to adjourn in honor of -- >> i defer to commissioner -- >> if you allow me a personal moment to adjourn in memory of my mother-in-law. is rather appropriate because she was the mother of the san

francisco police officer. she immigrated to this country, strong armenian woman, and had to go back to school to be reregistered as a nurse. she went back to state college later in life and completed courses where she received a teaching certificate to teach preschool at west porta in the early days of preschool days. she was small in stature, but i stood tall on her shoulders and women like her. >> i would also like to express condolences to mike nevans' family; he was a police inspector. i got to know him when he was state legislature. he is also the late uncle of someone who has been in the city -- pj johnston.

>> also we would adjourn in honor of spector mike nevin. also sadly we have to adjourn in honor of three current san francisco officers. these are current members. our thoughts and prayers are with her family, their cohorts at the stations, tonight we adjourn in the memory of them and others. we are adjourned.